DALLAS - In March 2010 when the Wild signed Casey Wellman, he was Chuck Fletcher's first big college free-agent pickup out of the University of Massachusetts.
Wellman immediately was considered the Wild's top prospect. But that was pre-Mikael Granlund, Brett Bulmer, Johan Larsson, Jason Zucker, Charlie Coyle, Zack Phillips and Mario Lucia.
Slowly, Wellman slipped down the depth chart, scored only 13 points in 41 games over three seasons and on Friday was traded to the New York Rangers for Erik Christensen.
"I wanted things to work out in Minnesota and it's disappointing that it didn't," Wellman said. "I had some chances there, but stuff like this happens and I just look forward to the future and hopefully I get a good opportunity."
Wellman was assigned by the Rangers to the AHL Connecticut Whale.
"I still think he's going to find his way and become a regular NHL player, but we have a lot of returning forwards next year and we have six young prospects that are turning pro," Fletcher said. "I can assure you it wasn't a case of offering Casey around, but we've been working on this for a couple weeks. We tried several different options, and this is what they insisted upon."
Staring down a curseThe Wild will try to kill the Curse of the North Stars yet again Saturday night when it tries to end a 14-game winless streak at American Airlines Center. The Wild hasn't won there since March 21, 2003, and not in regulation since March 8, 2002.
"I'm kind of excited about this," coach Mike Yeo said. "It's a new team. There are certain buildings that you go in and you have confidence in and they're confident against you. But the way I see it, we played a pretty good game against Dallas [Jan. 21 at home], and I don't think we're in a position where we can sit here and look what happened two or three years ago."
